Jeff Bezos could become 1st trillionaire as pandemic boosts Amazon sales, Twitter calls him 'vile capitalist'
Many people were disgusted with the prospect of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos becoming the world's first trillionaire by 2026 and they took to Twitter to express their anger as the tycoon started trending.
While the coronavirus pandemic is pushing the global economy fast into recession, with unemployment rates skyrocketing and the GDP growth rate crumbling in almost all major economies on the planet, Bezos' company is doing better than ever, resulting in his $125 billion net worth recorded on April 12 to jump to $143 billion in on May 5, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
People being forced to self-isolate at homes and getting even more dependent on at-home delivery services spelled wonders for the e-commerce giant and Amazon's sales reached $75 billion in the first quarter, MarketWatch reported. Everything from food to exercise equipment was ordered by customers online, resulting in the boom in profits of Amazon. Shares of the company are also up by about 28% this year.
According to Esquire, Bezos who owns an 11 percent stake in Amazon, has maintained his position as the world’s richest person since 2017. He is also among one of the world’s five richest people who have not only not lost their net worth but added to it significantly. If he does manage to reach a net worth of $1 trillion, his individual wealth would exceed GDPs of 179 countries with a combined population of 3.4 billion, which is essentially 43.7 percent of all humans alive.
Naturally, some of the humans who might end up falling in that 43.7 percentile had a bone to pick with the Amazon boss. Former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was one of those people and staying true to his idylls, he took to Twitter to unleash his anger at Bezos' growing wealth. "While working people struggle to survive, the rich reach unthinkable levels of wealth. The annual cost of chemotherapy for all cancer patients: $9 billion. Jeff Bezos made that much in about 40 days in 2018. We can and must build a system based on justice and dignity for all," he wrote on May 11.
Soon more people joined him in slamming Bezos. "Jeff Bezos is about to become the world’s first trillionaire while we’re about to enter a depression," one user wrote, while another said, "Jeff Bezos makes $2,489 per second meanwhile, millions of people are currently unemployed."
A third quipped: "The fact that Jeff Bezos is set to become the first TRILLIONAIRE because of how 'well' Amazon has been doing during a pandemic that hundreds of thousands of people have already died from should tell you all you need to know about how vile Capitalism is."
A fourth opined: "The Federal Minimum Wage is still $7.25 an hour. The system is rigged by people like Jeff Bezos for people like Jeff Bezos."
A fifth commented: "Jeff Bezos is almost a trillionaire & essentially abuses the slave labor he underpays to help make him a trillionaire. But apparently the problem in our Country is people like me. I'm what the GOP call a 'Socialist' cause I'm sickened by the heinous wealth inequality in the US."